Reynolds Family Crest

Hello my name is Cameron Stallings and I've got a big heap of family to make a crest for. I've decided to start with my mother's side. It's big, complicated, and chock full of characters. Here's a SIMPLIFIED family tree.

The four names/maiden names of my grandparents (Reynolds/Russell/Dickey/Eberle) predominantly originate from Scotland, Ireland and England. Although there is several colors to choose from within these flags I landed on green because it coincides with Oregon; our current location.

I asked around trying to figure out if we had a coat of arms that has been passed down but to no avail. On the other hand, the wolf crest below is pretty rad. To the left are my first sketches, testing out some crest shields to find a format/shape I liked.

Below is an iconography/slogan cluster. I'm going pick and choose from this bunch to fill my crest. My focus here was to come up with elements that would strike a cord with everyone.

Early on in the project when I was beginning to talk to relatives I of course called up my mom first. She thought the concept was a cool idea but couldn't help but focus on the negative aspects of our sometimes dysfunctional clan. I had to strain that this was entirely my project and that it's our oppurtunity to focus on the positives; that it was about us and our good times together. I'm not trying to forget the bad times but there's plenty of good memories to be celebrated. I'm sure a few of you may have run into the same hurdle.

Making use of the design lineage really came in handy. It made it so much easier to remember what was working beforehand. Using the guitar for the crest shape was tempting early on but I later realized that it didn't signify enough to be commanding so much space. During this lineage I would copy and paste onto the next step when I decided to make a drastic change. Sometimes that would make for some pretty pig jumps.

"SWAMP KIDS" ended up being nessacary as I went on. Below is most of my aunts and uncles tromping around the Crown Zellerbach region of Gearheart, OR looking like their own version of the Goonies. The rose on the top half represents Portland, where they stayed with my grandma. They switched between city and swamp on most weekends.